Savor tomato season a little longer

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

How to oven-roast tomatoes – Extend the season of summer's greatest treat with this easy oven-roasting method.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 1 – Start by coring 4 pounds of tomatoes using a paring knife to cut a cone shape out of the top of each one.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 2 – Once the tomatoes are cored, halve them through the core with a chef's or serrated knife. Don't remove the seeds or jelly-like pulp, though, because they both contain a lot of flavor.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 3 – Slow-roast the tomatoes on rimmed baking sheets, which will contain any runaway liquid; for easy cleanup, line the baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Distribute half of the tomatoes (cut-side up) on each sheet.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 4 – Season the tomatoes with Kosher salt, a lot of freshly cracked black pepper, and dried herbs de Provence. Thyme and oregano make good substitutions for the herbs de Provence (mint and rosemary do not); you can use fresh herbs, but dried work just fine.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 5 – Scatter the chopped garlic evenly over the tomatoes. Don't fret about being too exact—just look for a fairly even distribution.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 6 – Drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes with your thumb over the spout to direct the pour.

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 8 – Place the tomatoes in a preheated 425-degree oven for 30 minutes (or until the skins wrinkle up a bit and start to get brown in places).

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 9 – Carefully remove the tomatoes from the oven, and immediately turn the temperature down to 300 degrees. The tomatoes will have started giving up their liquid, which is why caution must be exercised when removing the trays.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 10 – Tilt the pans and let the liquid run into a bowl or measuring cup (you can also do this with a turkey baster). Take the tomatoes out of the oven to collect the liquid every 30 minutes until the tomatoes give out no more juice. You can use the seasoned tomato water as a poaching liquid for salmon, for vinaigrettes, and in sauces.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 11 – Use tongs to remove and discard the hot tomato skins, and then return the tomatoes to the oven. After 1 hour (be sure to keep siphoning off any remaining liquid), use a spatula to flip the tomato pieces cut-side up for the remainder of cooking.

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 12 – After 3 or 4 hours (it all depends on the tomatoes), the tomatoes will be visibly dried with some dark edges. At this point, pull them from the oven (if you like them a little softer or juicier, pull them earlier).

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Photos:Oven roasted tomatoes

Oven roasted tomatoes: Step 13 – Finally, let the tomatoes cool to room temperature on the sheets, and then transfer them to a bowl (or other storage container). Cover them completely with extra-virgin olive oil, then wrap the whole thing in plastic and refrigerate them for up to 2 months. Alternatively, you can leave out the oil and instead freeze the dried tomatoes in an airtight container—zipper-lock bags work great—for up to 3 months.

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Story highlights

Great tomatoes have a really short season

Still, too many can show up at once and they're a shame to waste

Extend the season by oven-roasting them and preserving them in olive oil

They can also be frozen, minus the oil, for up to three months

Fresh summer produce can't be beat, but if you have a robust garden or a particularly generous CSA arrangement, sometimes the amount of vegetables you're saddled with can get overwhelming. Fortunately, one of our editors, Scott Kathan, came up with a DIY recipe for using up an abundance of tomatoes.

These oven-roasted tomatoes have countless uses: They make a great addition to antipasti plates, sandwiches, soups, pizzas, and stews, and can be chopped fine and added to mayonnaise as a dip for crudité and crackers. That is, if you can stop yourself from simply eating them plain; they're what Scott describes as "savory, tender little umami bombs."

The tomato and mayonnaise sandwich – Mayonnaise, tomatoes and store-bought white bread. The beauty is in its simplicity.

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Photos:The tomato and mayonnaise sandwich

The tomato and mayonnaise sandwich – Some slather both slices. Others, only one.

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Photos:The tomato and mayonnaise sandwich

The tomato and mayonnaise sandwich – Don't be stingy with the 'maters.

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Photos:The tomato and mayonnaise sandwich

The tomato and mayonnaise sandwich – Sloppy sandwich heaven

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – The La Tomatina tomato-throwing festival kicked off yesterday in the Spanish town of Buñol. Around 20,000 people from around the world gathered for the festival's signature event: a one-hour fruit battle, staring mid-morning, during which -- this year -- 130 tons of tomatoes were distributed very liberally about the town, its inhabitants and visitors.

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – There aren't many rules to La Tomatina -- it seems to epitomize anarchy -- but it can only start when someone from the crowd manages to climb up a a greased pole and dislodge a large ham placed there for the event. A cannon then fires and the fruit frenzy begins.

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – Then it's generally everyone for him or herself. Participants are, however, encouraged to wear safety goggles, must squish tomatoes before thowing them and mustn't bring anything to the fight, such as a glass bottle, that might harm someone. Ripping other revelers' clothes is another no-no.

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – For the first time this year, La Tomatina participants were charged -- 10 euros ($13) -- to be drenched in pulped fruit juice. Organizers also tried to halve the number of people taking part this year, concerned that the size of the crowds posed a safety risk.

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – La Tomatina continues for a week after the fruit fight, with a parade, music and fireworks. There's a paella cook-off the night before the battle ... presumably tomatoes are rationed.

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – The origins of what is promoted as "the world's biggest tomato fight" -- there aren't that many -- are lost in the slurry of time. The most popular theory is that La Tomatina began with a brawl in the Valencian town around 1945, when a group of young people were excluded from a procession of traditional giant puppets. A fruit stall was nearby, and the rest is history.

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – International media attention on the colorful, frenetic gathering has caused it to grow to its current, apparently worrying size. Spaniards are no longer even the main participants. This year that was Australians, making up almost 20% of the crowd, followed by Japanese (17%) and Britons (11%). Native tomato-throwers comprised only 7% of participants, about the same share as Americans.

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Photos:La Tomatina tomato festival kicks off

La Tomatina tomato battle kicks off – Fire trucks spray the streets clean after the tomato fight with water from a Roman aqueduct. Participants wash themselves down in the Buñol River or make use of the few available showers -- as have these fruit-flingers from a previous year.

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Who picked your tomato?

MUST WATCH

For the love of tomatoes – Summer tomatoes, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways. We'll start with green, yellow, orange, purple, white and oh yeah -- red heirloom tomatoes.

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Photos:For the love of tomatoes

For the love of tomatoes – While tomatoes are in season, we make up for the many, many months without them and eat as many as we can while they're available. These were bought from a local farmer in Schoharie County, New York.

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Photos:For the love of tomatoes

For the love of tomatoes – This'd be a "cream sausage" heirloom tomato from our managing editor's garden. And it's happy to see you.

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Photos:For the love of tomatoes

For the love of tomatoes – Whatever the color or shape, tomatoes are simply glorious with fresh basil, mozzarella, olive oil and a little bit of sea salt in a Caprese salad.

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Photos:For the love of tomatoes

For the love of tomatoes – A lower-acid tomato just needs a little kiss of salt and not much else to make it

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Photos:For the love of tomatoes

For the love of tomatoes – A tomato sandwich on white bread with mayonnaise is, however, a tomato's highest calling.

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Photos:For the love of tomatoes

For the love of tomatoes – One more tomato sandwich, because really -- it's the finest sandwich on the planet.

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Photos:For the love of tomatoes

For the love of tomatoes – Extend the season's bounty just a little bit longer with a canning project.

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1. Adjust oven rack to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove and discard tomato cores. Slice tomatoes in half through core and place, cut-side up, on prepared baking sheets. Drizzle 1/2 cup of oil evenly over tomatoes, and season with garlic, herbs de Provence, salt, and pepper. Flip tomatoes cut-side down, transfer to oven, and bake until skins have loosened, about 30 minutes.

3. Remove tomatoes from oven and pour off any liquid into bowl. Using tongs, carefully flip each tomato half and return to oven until tomatoes are visibly shrunken, dry, and slightly dark around edges, 2 to 2 1/2 hours, pouring off liquid as necessary every 30 minutes.

4. Transfer baking sheets to wire rack, and allow tomatoes to cool to room temperature. Transfer tomatoes to clean bowl and cover completely with remaining olive oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 4 weeks. (If freezing tomatoes, do not cover with oil; transfer to zipper-lock freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months.) Reserve tomato liquid for another use.